Stop the trials

WITH gene therapy researchers still reeling from the unexplained death of 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger last September during a clinical trial, critics of biotechnology are calling for an immediate moratorium on the use of some techniques.

Jeremy Rifkin, an activist who sued the US National Institutes of Health in 1989 in an effort to stop the very first gene therapy trial, returned last week to accuse its Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) of failing to protect patients. "You're just getting around to asking questions that you should have asked ten years ago," he said. Rifkin formally asked the committee to request the Food and Drug Administration to halt all gene therapy trials using viruses, except those involving patients with life-threatening diseases for which there are no other treatments.

Stewart Newman, a biologist from New York Medical College who represents the lobby group Council for Responsible Genetics, joined Rifkin in his call ...

To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

To continue reading this article, log in or subscribe to New Scientist

App + web

Web

Smartphone

Tablet

$25.99 - Save 65%

12 issues for $2.17 per issue

with continuous service

Print + web

Print

Web

$28.99 - Save 61%

12 issues for $2.42 per issue

with continuous service

Print + app + web

Print

Web

Smartphone

Tablet

$39.99 - Save 73%

12 issues for $3.33 per issue

with continuous service

Web

Web only

$49.99

30 day web pass

Prices may vary according to delivery country and associated local taxes.